


Engine of Legend

by magnedhead



Category: Devil May Cry
Genre: Action, Combat, Devil May Cry (Game), Devils, Fantasy, Gen, Mythology - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-25
Updated: 2020-06-04
Packaged: 2021-03-02 18:55:28
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 6
Words: 6,882
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24371650
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/magnedhead/pseuds/magnedhead
Summary: It seems Fortuna City cannot catch a breath.Merely a year after the uprising of the Order of Sparda, a new threat menaces the city.Luckily, the heroes of last year are all in town.
Kudos: 10





	1. Opening Narration

“This hand was made for sending guys like you back to hell!”  
_No…_

“And… now… you-”

NO!

“DIE!”

The daemonic hand closed, and his face cracked like fragile glass, and his soul sent screaming from the mortal realm. The daemonic powers he himself possessed had proved insufficient for his designs, and now they were dragging him down. He could sense his ultimate destination. The Daemonic Realm.

His soul was ultimately mortal and would not withstand the forces that even the weakest servant of Hell was subjected to. It would be eternal torture. He wanted to scream in defiance, in rage, but nothing came. As he descended, the pain came. First a tingling, an itch he could not scratch. But it built and built, until it was like fire across his naked soul.

Then, one moment, the pain was gone. Something was observing him, looking at him. He felt an interest, but there was no benevolence. Dimly he recognised the sensation, for he had looked at his subordinates as such. Tools, a means to an end. It cared not for him, but it sensed the power that had been grafted onto his soul and the connection he had to the mortal realm. It snatched him from the flow of energy, from his doom in the daemonic realm. As he was shaped and reformed to its purpose, he lost some of himself. But not all. The image of a young, white-haired man with a daemonic arm did not leave him.


	2. Mission 1 - Exterminator

“Why did we wait a year to do this?” Lady said.

“Other jobs came up.” Dante said, though the explosion from Lady’s rocket ate up every word.

“You were saying?” Lady said with a smirk.

Dante chuckled in reply, then looked past Lady. One of the daemon-infused armours had surged past Trish. He raised his pistols and fired, but the armour raised its shield.

Left behind after Angus’ experiments and set to infuse in the growth-tanks, the armours that had not been deployed in the Order’s bid for power had grown monstrous. Dante would have to close the distance to crack its plating, but he quickly saw there would be no need. A lightning bolt erupted from the chamber it had come from and immobilised it, quickly followed by a scythe that impaled it from behind. It rattled for a moment then collapsed, its malformed helmet rolling a few feet before stopping.

A second armour came flying out of Nero’s chamber, its lance and shield lost at some point in the struggle. It did not make it far before Nero reached out with his daemonic hand and caught it, slamming it into the ground like a fisherman stunning a catch. Only this fish was scattered into a hundred pieces.

“That should be the last of them.” Nero said, holstering his pistol and wiping dust off his hands.

Angus’ last experiments removed, the gang left the remainder of the cleanup to the authorities and collected their paycheck. As a resident of Fortuna and known opposition of the Order of Sparda, Nero had initially been asked to do it by the city council. Not wanting to root out Angus’ rat’s nest of a laboratory on his own, Nero had reached out to _Devil May Cry_ for their assistance. Though he preferred to call it company. With the reward split equally to each participating member, Lady and Trish had also decided to tag along.

But it would be a little while yet before the city of Fortuna could rest.


	3. Mission 2 - Wild Descent

“I’m amazed they managed to repair all the damage and remove that ugly lump in such a short time.” Lady said, looking over the skyline of Fortuna. The remainders of the False Saviour were gone entirely, the marble reused for commemorative statues and monuments to remember those that had fallen. Many had, but many more had survived thanks to the efforts of Nero and _Devil May Cry_. Nero was a local hero.

“Everyone pitched in, either as workers or to hire workers. It was a community effort.” Nero said. He had been the former, though he had tried to avoid using his daemonic power for simple repair work.

Nero had barely finished his sentence before a quake shook the city. At first it was only just perceptible, but it grew in strength quickly. Within moments buildings were shaking dangerously, and many were fleeing buildings in the street below. On the façade below them, a child was looking out their window calling for their parents, when the quake intensified again. With a scream, the child tumbled over the lip of the window, out into open air.

“I’ve got it!” Nero called out and vaulted over the banister. The child only screamed louder when Nero caught her in mid-air and latched onto the side of the building with his daemonic arm. Mortar and brick splintered and scattered as he rode the wall to the ground.

Dante landed beside him as he handed the child off to the grateful parents. “Good work kid, but it seems it’s only just beginning. Come back up.”

Where the old Hellgate had stood, the city had begun the construction of a cathedral. The worship of Sparda persisted, though no religious authority had risen to take His Holiness’ position.

Nero and the others could only watch as the shell of the cathedral-to-be collapsed. The ground around the foundation rumbled and fell away, revealing an abyss beneath. Nero half-expected a cloud of daemons to emerge, like they had a year ago, but none came. Only an ominous feeling in the air as a vast cavern below the city was exposed to the sunlight, perhaps for the first time.

“Reminds me of something.” Lady said as they stood at the edge of the pit. She gave Dante a meaningful glance.

“Temen-Ni-Guru.” Dante replied.

“Temen-Ni-Gru.” Lady corrected.

Nero did not know what they were talking about, but it was clear that it was no ordinary pit. For one it was vast, deep enough that the bottom was invisible from their vantage point. The walls were not simple rock, but carved edifices to creatures he could not recognise. At a guess, he assumed them to be depictions of daemons. A foul wind emanated from the hole, air that had been stagnant for a millennium. The light of the sun did not seem to penetrate far down the hole.

“Can you hear that?” Lady asked. Nero strained his ears. Dante leaned over the edge ever so slightly, a smile on his face as always. Trish held her distance from the edge, silent ever since they had approached it.

At first Nero only heard the sounds from the city and the eerie howl of the escaping air. But there was something else as well; a roar, deep in the depths before them. He had never heard its like, but it was clearly unnatural.

“I’m going in.” Nero said and double-checked that all his gear was secured to his person.

“We’ll go too.” Trish said and stepped up. Her expression was serious, and she looked into the pit with intent. When she looked to Dante and Lady for their consent, Dante shrugged, and Lady shouldered her weapons.

Deciding to leave the question of their return for after, the group descended in leaps and bounds, each using their gear and abilities to rappel down or simply leap from ledge to ledge. It did not take many minutes for them to leave the light of the surface behind, though the depths of the pit had its own curious light. Beyond the roar they had heard earlier, they never saw signs of life, mortal or daemonic. The pit truly was like a counterpart to the legendary Temen-ni-Gru, but while that tower had teemed with daemonic beings, this place was abandoned by mortals and daemons both.

A while after they had left the light from the surface, they came upon the first discovery; a structure suspended in the central shaft by horizontal supports, carved from the same dark-grey stone that the edifices had been constructed from. There were four of the supports, but they were not symmetrically aligned with the central platform. On further inspection, each of the supports was set in a groove in the wall that ran all the way to the surface. An elevator, perhaps. Albeit one not constructed by mortal hands.

It was while they were examining this structure that they heard the roar again. It had been silent during their descent, leaving only the howling of the escaping air to fill the daunting silence of the pit. This roar was much closer, closer than the distance they had covered to get here. Whatever was making the roar, it must be huge, but it also reminded Nero of something.

He had little time to ponder the specifics, for from the depths of the pit, beyond the reach of the ambient light in the air, a burst of energy blasts soared up towards them. They all dived away from the edge of the platform, but the blasts were powerful enough to rock the entire platform. They all stumbled in place, trying to keep their footing, when yet more blasts struck, this time hitting one of the supports. The rock groaned and cracked, breaking away to fell into the abyss. The structure still held, but it was clear it would not hold much longer. Each of the demon hunters ran for the far wall from the support had collapsed, nearly at the edge of the platform when the second support was destroyed to their right, and the structure began to crack apart and collapse. Another support broke, this time from the weight it had suddenly been asked to withstand, and the entirety cracked off the remaining support and began tumbling into the darkness.

The group leapt off the platform in time, but Nero and Lady had aimed for the remaining support, which cracked halfway, leaving Nero’s destination and Lady’s bladed grapple with a chunk of masonry that was falling. Using his daemonic arm, Nero caught hold of Lady and held onto the remaining edge of the support with his free hand. That too began to crack, weakened by the rock that had been wrenched away from it and the sudden catch.

“I got you, kid!” Dante shouted. Daemonic power erupted as he landed next to them in his daemon form, Rebellion spiked through the rock as an impromptu rebar. Nero and Lady were easily lifted to safety and Dante retrieved his sword, leaving the rock to join the rest of the structure in its rapid descent.

There was little time for further talk, for more blasts came at them, blowing edifices apart around their ears.

Dante, back to his human appearance, sheathed his sword and pointed at Nero and Lady. “You two, join us when you can. Trish, with me. High time we returned the favours.”

With that, Dante and Trish leapt onto the wall and began descending, a mixture of running down the vertical wall like it was a track and leaping around the structures in the walls.

Lady shouldered her gear and accepted Nero’s arm around her waist as he lowered them down arm-length by arm-length. It was slower than Dante’s vertical sprint, but the young man pushed and pulled with all he had, not wanting to be left out.

As the vanguard, Dante and Trish found their attacker first. The pit contained two more of the supported structures, their enemy squatting on the second they found.

The energy blasts that had struck their platform erupted from the ends of long, segmented limbs, like metallic tentacles. Four of these were attached to a torso supported on a thick body with yet more limbs, these clearly meant for movement. A long tail completed the look of a metallic scorpion with extra limbs. On top of the torso was something like a camera pod, a simple metallic sphere that pulsed with red light.

Energy blasts had been harassing them on the entire descent but now that they were in visual range, the machine, or creature, hard to discern, could aim more easily. Each limb pointed at one of them and fired, Dante and Trish forced to leap from the wall to avoid being hit. Yet more blasts were fired at them during their leap, but they were shot out of the air, Dante and Trish wielding their large handguns in each hand.

Dante’s leap carried him further than Trish, sending him plummeting towards the machine’s torso. Energy blasts detonated around the demon hunter laid down suppressive fire, switching to his massive sword in the final second. The ring of metal on metal echoed up and down the enormous pit, but the machine’s armour was undamaged by the blow. One of the segmented limbs swung at him before Dante could strike again and he leapt away to land next to Trish. 

The pulses in the metallic sphere ceased, the red light now focused on Dante. “Dante, son of the Daemon Knight Sparda.” A voice called out, like from a cheap speaker-system.

Dante chuckled. “I’m very flattered that even a hermit like you knows my name. But I don’t know yours.” Rebellion was resting on his shoulder, his eyes scanning the machine for signs of a weak point.

“I require no name. I only require your demise.” The machine said and rose with a rumbling. The powerful legs propelled it towards Dante and Trish who had to dive out of the way of the charging machine and its swiping limbs. Dante struck with his sword when the opportunity presented itself, but he only succeeded in batting the limbs away; its armour remained undamaged. Neither could Trish’s lightning bolts dent it. Even when one struck the sphere, it only refocused on the woman instead of Dante.

“Traitor! Traitor!” It screeched and charged again, Trish forced to duck and weave between the segmented limbs as they swung at her.

The assault ceased for a moment when a rocket impacted with one of its legs, and Nero and Lady joined the fray. Dante watched with some small amusement as Nero dived out of the air and struck the machine in the torso with Red Queen, the motor-assisted sword screeching to high heaven as it too failed to even dent the machine’s armour. Legs braced against the join between the machine’s torso and main body, Nero drew his other sword, Yamato. The daemon-blade appeared in his daemonic hand but before the young man could strike, two of the segmented limbs intercepted him, grabbing hold of him to hold him up. He struggled, but the grip was too strong to be casually broken. Another limb came up, an energy blast about to erupt, when the machine stopped moving.

The red light changed to a more golden hue. Something changed on the sphere, like a TV set being turned on. Dante could not see it very clearly, but it appeared to be a human face it was displaying. After a moment, Nero began struggling violently in the machine’s grip, cursing and straining.

The machine rocked again as Lady landed another rocket on its torso, followed by a thunderbolt from Trish. As it reeled, Dante leapt up and struck one of the limbs. It loosened its grip for just a breath, but that was enough for Nero. He ripped his daemonic arm free and took hold of one limb, forcing it to open through the horrendous strength of that arm. When another energy blast came up, Nero extended the arm into a punch that forced the machine back several steps and to let go.

Nero struggled even as he fell to the ground, rolling the landing and charging the machine again.

“What’s gotten into the kid?” Dante mumbled to himself and followed. Lady and Trish were laying down the firepower, but nothing seemed to make any significant impact.

One of the limbs struck at Nero, who caught in with his hand. For a moment he was forced back, but then he began to push, the limb creaking under the pressure, but it would not last. Despite the assault it was under, it still focused on Nero, bringing another limb around to impale him from the side. It would have, if Dante had managed to block it.

“Nero! You’re being reckless!” Dante shouted, both hands holding tight on his sword. The machine was very strong.

“It’s him again.” Nero said, offering little in the way of explanation.

“Doesn’t narrow it down much.” Dante grunted.

Before Nero could continue, both were tossed away to land next to Lady and Trish.

“Vanish!” The bad loudspeaker voice screamed, and the seams of the machine glowed from some internal source, before a field of energy exploded outwards, too fast for anyone to react. Immense concussive force blew all 4 hunters off the platform into the abyss below.


	4. Mission 3 - Legacy of the Daemon Knight

Nero groaned and rose as best he could. Everything hurt. His hand fell on a shattered chunk of rock. Opening his eyes, he was surrounded by them, and there was a hole in the rock ceiling above him. He did not want to think about his injuries if his body had made that hole.

He could hear other voices in the gloom. Lady was sat against a wall to his right, a streak of blood across her collar and shirt. He was relieved to see she was awake and still breathing. He couldn’t see Dante or Lady but he could hear them talking.

“You’re awake.” Lady said.

“I kinda wish I wasn’t.” Nero said with a grimace. It hurt his ribs to speak.

Lady smiled at that but remained seated.

“Where are we?” Nero asked. The stone here was darker than it had been in the pit, and narrow lines of silvery metal ran along the walls as well as the stone in the roof. Looking at the broken chunks again, the metal was a few inches into the rock. Looking up, he could still faintly see the silvery lines even where the rock had broken away.

“I don’t know, but perhaps Dante or Trish have found something.” Lady said and rose unsteadily.

Lady was still dizzy from her own injuries, so Nero helped her along. Dante and Trish were around the corner, looking at a mural on the wall. A host of creatures were charging across the depicted scene, devastation all around. At each far end of the mural were different, but distinct, depictions of characters. Nero could easily recognise one of them; a horned humanoid in a suit of armour, large sword cutting swathes through the charging horde. The daemonic knight of legend, Sparda. The Order, as well as Kyrie’s former home, had had many depictions of the saviour knight. The other was several times larger, a monstrous man crowned with light, with large wings extending from his back. The daemons came from him, emerging from the shadows under his wings.

“We haven’t found a way out yet.” Trish said when she caught sight of them. Lady could stand on her own now, though Nero carried her precious rocket launcher.

“Can’t we punch our way out?”

Dante held up an armoured fist in way of reply. Gilgamesh, one of the Devil Arms he had acquired during the rise of the Order of Sparda. “Whatever this box is built from, it’s as durable as the thing that sent us here. We’ll have to find the exit.”

At the mention of the machine, Nero’s pain receded, replaced with anger. Anger like he had not felt for a year. Whatever it was, it is no simple machine. “We have to get out of here, we can’t just sit on our asses.”

“Don’t worry kid, that’s not what we’re doing, but first,” Dante stepped over and put his hand on Nero’s shoulder, “What happened up there? You lost your cool.”

Nero wanted to say _‘It’s nothing’_ but he bit back the impulse. A year ago, Dante had trusted in Nero. Nero often felt like he needed to pay that back.

“Whatever that machine is, it’s not some random daemon. I know him.” Nero said, trying his best not to shout.

The others listened and waited, Dante having a rare moment of a serious expression.

“It’s Sanctus again.” Nero said, crossing one of his arms to show the Order insignia on his coat. He had considered getting it removed many times, but Kyrie had insisted he keep it.

“His Holiness.” Trish said, drawing looks from Dante and Lady. “What?”

“But I thought you had killed him.” Lady said. She had her launcher back now.

“So did I.” Nero said with a grimace.

“So, the old guy’s back. We need to stop him. Again.” Dante said.

Nero nodded.

“But you have to keep your cool. He only benefits from your recklessness.” Dante said.

“Never thought I’d see Dante, son of Sparda, preaching about recklessness.” Lady said with a chuckle.

“That’s calculated recklessness,” Dante said, “That’s different.”

“I think I have an idea of what we’re facing.” Trish said after a moment of silence.

“But I can’t be sure.”

“Well it’s not like we’re bursting with theories. Lay it on us.” Dante said and leaned against the wall with the mural.

“It’s a myth in the daemon world.” Trish began.

“Back when Mundus and Sparda warred over control of the human world, it is said that the Daemon Emperor Mundus personally forged a war machine to destroy the daemonic knight. He dubbed it the _Exitium Engine_ and used one of his greatest lieutenants as a catalyst for its core.”

“I’ve encountered many leftovers from my old man, but never a robot.” Dante said.

Trish glanced at him but did not respond. “The knight and the machine fought for a week and a day, neither landing a decisive blow. Sparda was too fast for the machine, but Mundus had used Gilgamesh alloy in its construction, and Sparda’s blade left not even a scratch.”

Dante whistled at that. There were whispers among the communities that knew of the daemon world that Dante had surpassed the strength of his legendary father, and Nero imagined the daemon hunter was looking forward to round two.

“In the end, Sparda decided that he could only seal the _Exitium Engine_ away. He used Yamato to cut away the catalyst within, and the _Engine_ fell to the bottom of the daemon realm, driverless.”

Nero impulsively touched his daemon hand. The daemonic sword had many powers, and he doubted he could ever use it to the proficiency of its original wielder.

“At a guess,” Trish said, the tones of narration fading, “I would say that the machine we encountered was the _Exitium Engine_ but how it has regained autonomy and why now, I cannot say.”

“That’s all well and good, but we still need to find a way out.” Lady said.

They did not have to search far; following the corridor away from the mural, they found a massive hall, constructed like a gothic version of an aircraft hangar. The silvery threads in the walls were twice as thick here, and glowed with more energy. A circular platform rested in the floor, easily big enough for the machine to stand on, but no controls were immediately visible. The only decoration in the room was a large edifice, carved like the ones that lined the pit above, resting with its back to a wall. On one side of the wall was a mural, much like the other, but with one obvious difference. Where the other had hordes of daemons, this mural depicted a single, metallic creature. A stylistic depiction of the _Exitium Engine_ , battling the daemon knight Sparda. Neither showed signs of either victory or defeat.

The edifice, on closer inspection, was different from the ones in the pit. The pit was lined with daemons, while this mural stood next to a statue of Sparda himself, with a close resemblance to the depiction as employed by the Order. Which had inspired the other, if they had at all, Nero was not going to stick around to find out.

“This must be where our friend made his escape, but how?” Dante mumbled. They had already tried forcing it; Neither Dante nor Nero could punch through the enchanted ceiling.

“What’s this here?” Lady said. She was pointing at the statue.

“And no smart comments.” She said, with a pointed look at Dante. She pointed out that the statue was holding something in its hands. It was like a tube or a bracelet, large enough to stick an arm through.

“Lady,” Dante said while pulling up the sleeves of his coat, “I think you were on to something when you said this place reminded you of Temen-ni-Gru.”

Before anyone could respond, Dante stuck one of his arms through the statue’s bracelet. Runes sprang up all over the surface of the edifice while Trish looked about frantically trying to follow their meanings. The edifice began to move, its rock-limbs creaking as it raised one hand with a sword to the sky. The runes coalesced on the blade’s point, and a beam shot skywards to hit the ceiling. As the group watched, the silvery lines began to fade and a large hole opened, wide enough to admit the circular platform that had begun to rumble.

“Built by Sparda, to be opened by Sparda, or by Sparda’s blood.” Trish said.”

Dante was checking that all his weapons were in place. “Just so.”


	5. Chapter 4 - Unrelenting Steel

The lift did not go far; Nero sensed that the protection of the silvery runes was the more important function of the proof of Sparda’s bloodline.

It seemed to the group that they were at the bottom of the pit; the walls were lined with the edifices they had seen going down, and the prison they had escaped stretched from wall to wall. Straining their eyes, they could see one of the elevator-structures far above them. The silence of the pit was occasionally broken by roars from the machine as it ascended the pit, heading for the city above.

“Sanctus must be heading for Fortuna.” Nero said. He had to force his fists to unclench. 

“That’s clear,” Lady said and turned to Dante, “What’s the plan?”

“Hit it and hit it hard.” Dante said. He was looking up the pit, eyes straining for a glimpse of the machine, but with no luck.

“Dante, if that truly is the Engine, I don’t think that will be enough.” Trish said. An opponent sturdy enough that even Dante would not be able to hurt it was an unnerving prospect, but Nero pushed it aside. They would find a way. They had to.

Dante scoffed but looked around. Around the, the prison roof was fading away, becoming open to the air. A keen eye would observe that the silvery lines were still present, albeit faint. “Dislodge it and send it back down here, then. We’ll put it back in my old man’s box.”

Everyone nodded at the plan and they set off, moving upwards as quickly as they could in a group. To Nero it felt like an eternity, crawling up edifices with his daemonic arm when the distances became too great to leap. He considered calling Kyrie and telling her to leave the city, but his phone had broken in the fall to the prison. Not that he expected great reception at the bottom of a daemonic pit.

The silence amongst the group was broken by a tearing noise above them, as a barrage of energy blasts flew towards them. Small arms fire intercepted them, and explosions bloomed in the still air. The group hurried their pace as much as they could while balls of energy exploded around them and in the air.

“There!” Nero shouted, pointing with his free hand. In the gloom some 50 metres above was the hind legs of the machine. It was climbing off the wall onto one of the elevator platforms.

“Kid, hurry! Keep it busy or it’ll get away from us!” Dante shouted. The daemon hunter was employing both hands and feet in climbing, spiking his Gilgamesh boots into the wall.

Nero nodded, shot his arm as far as it went and pulled. It was like a one-way bungee cord, sending him soaring upwards. His hair whipped in the wind of his momentary burst of speed, until he kicked off the wall and landed on one of the structural supports. The machine was fully on the platform, attempting to align one its segmented limbs with an edifice in the centre of the suspended structure.

Nero drew his revolver and fired. The bullets hit and shook the limb, but there was no damage.

“Sanctus!” Nero shouted, his revolver trained on the sphere that had displayed the old man’s face.

The sphere turned towards Nero and that wrinkled face came forward again. Sanctus, the former leader of the Order of Sparda, peered out from the innards of the machine with open contempt and no small amount of rage displayed on his features.

“Ah, Nero. I thought I had beheld a vile weakling, but you were defeated so swiftly and assuredly that I doubted myself.” Sanctus said with a grin.

“We’re all still here, Sanctus. It’s time for you to die for good.” Nero said, silently admonishing himself for revealing the others had survived.

“I think not, human,” Sanctus said and raised the machine body up onto its rear legs, towering above Nero and the platform, “For I have ascended, chosen for this indestructible body. Not even the legendary knight Sparda could dent this armour.”

Sanctus finished speaking and struck out, the metallic limbs swinging around to point at Nero before firing a barrage. Nero fired his revolver to intercept as many as he could, dashing to the side when the chamber was empty. He rolled and ducked around the blasts as they impacted on the stone floor. Even as the machine fired at him, it was moving one of its limbs towards the central edifice on the platform. When the group had been examining the supported structures, they had not tried activating them.

Seeing the edifice, Nero imagined how that would be done. He could not be sure if Sanctus or the machine had the means, but Fortuna would be in danger if it could. He stowed the revolver and drew his sword, revving the handle as he dove to the side and sprinted for the machine. Two limbs darted forward to attack him and he struck back with the sword and let the engine cut loose and the limbs were pushed to the side to ram into the floor. The remaining limb was too slow to intercept as Nero manifested Yamato’s power and punched the machine’s front at full run with his daemonic arm. He had hoped for the crunching of metal but even against this, the armour held. Its footing did not, and it was sent flying back several meters, stopped only when its legs stabbed into the floor.

Sanctus roared with anger and raised the machine again. The limbs were raised and glowing when the rest of the group arrived.

“Nero, can you pull that off again?” Dante shouted, his pistols blasting away at the barrage of energy blasts.

“All day long.” Nero said and clenched his fist. Yamato had phased away, but he could call it back in the blink of an eye. He felt the sword’s call and its craving for power even when he slept.

The group sprang into action, neutralising the machine’s attacks as best they could and forcing it back step by step. Trish fired great blasts of lightning at its limbs and feet. Lady blasted at it whenever it attempted to gain solid footing. Dante hacked away at the legs, keeping them unsteady.

“Nero!” Dante shouted and dove out of the way. The machine now stood at the edge of the platform and was having difficulty fitting all of its feet under its frame without tangling.

One of the limbs struck out towards Nero as he sprinted, but a lightning blast intercepted it and locked it in place for just long enough for Nero to dash past. Sanctus roared again as Nero delivered another devastating blow to the machine’s torso and sent it flying over the edge of the platform and into the depths below. The group hurried to the edge to watch it all. The machine glowed enough that they could see it fall to the bottom. The ground shook when it landed, and they could see the rock ceiling begin to close in around it. The silvery runes glowed intensely as they closed around it. The machine’s roar could be heard the whole way down, only cut off when the runes enveloped it completely.

Dante sighed. “I don’t like leaving loose ends, but we’ll have to let this sit I think.”

“Agreed, till we find a way to destroy it.” Trish said.

But even as the group turned away, they heard a rumbling from below. The silvery lines glowed again and faded away, as did the stone ceiling of the prison. The central elevator, the same that had carried them out of the prison’s interior, raised the _Exitium Engine_ back to the world of humanity. Sanctus laughed, and the hideous sound carried throughout the entirety of the pit.


	6. Mission 5 - Showdown

“The power of Sparda flows through my soul!” Sanctus cried out and laughed. His voice was audible even though the machine was only barely visible in the gloom below. Energy blasts were erupting from it almost like a parade firing, exploding along the walls of the pit, destroying edifices and support pillars alike.

“This time, I will be triumphant. I cannot be stopped!”

“Over my dead body.” Nero said through gritted teeth. Taking a few steps away from the edge, Nero leapt off the platform and dove for the machine down below.”

“Nero!” Lady and Trish shouted, trying to reach out to stop him.

“Kid! Don’t be reckless!” Dante called out.

Nero did not hear them. Energy blasts flew past him like anti-aircraft fire as he drew back his right arm. Sanctus’ face appeared on the monitor pod and Nero threw the punch, the daemonic fist driving the entire machine an inch into the floor beneath it.

Sanctus laughed and Nero was slammed aside from a metallic limb, his sudden movement only stopped when he hit the floor himself. The wind was knocked out of him from the impact and he could see several more of the limbs curving around to strike him too. The limb that had hit him was pinning his right arm to the floor and with no breath in his lungs he could not budge it even an inch. Vaguely he could hear Sanctus cackling.

The cackling turned to frustration when Lady and Trish intervened, blasting the oncoming limbs away. Dante landed next to Nero, grabbing the limb holding him pinned with a gloved hand and pulling it away. Nero had no time to speak before Dante pulled him up by his collar.

“Nero! How many times do I have to tell you this?” Dante shouted. His tone was so different to the usually jolly hunter that Nero was thrown for a moment.

“You know what he’s done!” Nero retorted.

“I have, but if you get reckless and get yourself killed, that will only get worse!” Dante said and let Nero go. He almost stumbled, still getting his breath back.

Dante raised his right hand and made a fist, eyes locked on Nero’s. “I’m not asking you to let go. I’m asking you to channel it. Use it.”

If Dante had intended to say more, he did not get the chance. A metallic limb slipped past Trish and attacked, to which Dante spun in place and kicked with his Gilgamesh-booted foot. Daemonic steel screeched against daemonic steel, but neither acquired even a dent.

Nero took a deep breath. The red haze over his sight faded a little and his mind receded from the rage. Dante was right. Flying off the hook helped no one. But how could they defeat this thing? Not even Dante could scratch it.

Trish’s tale from earlier came to the front of his mind. _In the end, Sparda decided that he could only seal the Exitium Engine away. He used Yamato to cut away the catalyst within, and the Engine fell to the bottom of the daemon realm, driverless._

He could not replicate Sparda’s feat. Even if he had the strength, he had not the control. But maybe he had an alternative.

The limb Dante was fighting retreated a length and darted around him, aiming for Nero. Nero’s right fist closed around the limb, holding it from moving.

“Dante, Lady, Trish, buy me a moment, I have a plan!” Nero shouted while holding the limb. It struggled in his grip, but his breath was back, and his strength with it.

The group sprang into action with no further words. Explosions from Lady’s launcher cut through the gloom of the pit while Trish’s thunderbolts kept the machine from moving. Two of the limbs struck out, only to be slapped down by Dante. Nero stood where Dante had left him, his right hand open and held at his side as he focused, sharpening the anger he had let loose into something useful.

With a shout, Dante punched the machine in the underside, lifting it a foot off the ground.

“Even the great Dante cannot event dent my armour. Your efforts are futile!” Sanctus laughed, his limbs trashing around, shooting off energy blasts. 

A rocket impacted with the metallic sphere and the voice ceased for a moment. When it returned, Trish slammed another thunderbolt into it, seeming as though it had come all the way from the surface above the pit.

Sanctus chuckled, the sound unused to his soul and transmuted horribly by his new form. “Ah, Trish, or should I say, Gloria. You have power, but in the end, you are simply a puppet.”

“You’re the puppet, Sanctus!” Nero shouted, the daemon sword Yamato phasing into his grip.

Sanctus turned back towards the young man and struck, a blast of energy shooting from a limb.

“And it’s time to cut your strings!” Yamato flashed, once, twice, thrice. Behind Sanctus a great triangle of pure black opened, a portal into the void between the human and daemonic realms.

The energy-blast was destroyed, and Sanctus howled in defiance as the vacuum opened behind him howled and pulled, dragging at his form. His four arms rammed into the ground to hold him and his movement stopped. He raised his head to deride them and counterattack.

He was met by the flash of a red coat. Dante sped past Nero, the energy of his true daemon form blazing behind him. Dante was upon him before he could react, a single Gilgamesh-enhanced punch to the machine’s midsection. The power in that one punch was incredible, as evidenced by the cracking of rock when every single arm securing Sanctus from the void was broken free and his form lifted into the air. But as Sanctus tumbled around, screaming in rage, his tail snapped out and wrapped around Dante, bringing the hunter with him towards the portal.

“Dante!” The ladies shouted in unison.

The hunter grinned in Sanctus’ grip. “I’ll keep him busy down there, so he doesn’t trouble you again. _Adios_ , friends.”

Lady and Trish sprinted after the flying daemon to rescue Dante, but Nero stood still. Something about Dante’s tone confused him. It was too jovial, for one.

Sanctus’ form scrabbled for purchase along the edges of the dimensional portal cut by Yamato, but there was none. Where his hands hit the threshold they were simply severed, falling towards the abyss below.

“Is this truly a win for you, Nero, son of Sparda? I go, but Dante will be lost with me!” Sanctus shouted as he flew towards the portal. There was no stopping it now, only watching as the once-leader of the Order of Sparda sailed to his doom.

“I am sorry to disappoint His Holiness at such a crucial junction,” Dante said, the smirk on his face fully evident in his tone, “But I must take my leave.”

Sanctus howled as Dante simply vanished, reappearing next to Lady and Trish a blink of an eye later.

Sanctus’ daemonic form crossed the boundary, the screaming stopping as his head phased through. With a snap, the portal closed, sealing him away forever in the unknown dimension.

Nero realised he had been too preoccupied when Dante’s hand on his shoulder made him jump.

“You did good, Nero. Now, if I never have to speak like that again, you’ve done excellently.” Dante said. His jolly tone was back. Trish and Lady too seemed relieved.

“Now let’s go home. This job got a bit bigger than it was made out to be, and I’m starving.” Dante continued and looked up. The gloom was somehow clearing, and the blue sky above was now faintly visible.

By the time Nero and the others returned to the surface, a large crowd had gathered. When Nero cleared the lip of the pit, the crowd cheered. Accepting their gratitude and thanks, Nero hurried home. Now Kyrie and he could truly live free of the Order of Sparda.


End file.
